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At The Summit 8, Team Kinguin triumphantly beat Evil Geniuses and compLexity Gaming in the group stages. The tinge of excitement over the prospects of a new challenger to the status quo diminished rapidly. Over the course of 3 qualifiers and now at StarLadder, disappointing results ran rampant. The American scene saw an explosion of teams and among them rose compLexity Gaming at the fore, winning 2 NA qualifiers back to back in recent times. A long-awaited showing at the international scene ran awry when they failed to win even a single game at ESL One Genting 2018, and a poor outcome at StarLadder continues their woes. Similarly, Team Empire and Infamous posed no threat to the core of today’s competitive Dota 2 scene, and their impact on the direction of the tournament was negligible.

Where Challengers Falter

Previously articulated results for the group stages turned out exactly as one would expect them to be. What went wrong? For Team Kinguin, one doesn’t need to look further than having an inflated expectation from the team. The tiny margin of skill that differentiates a domestic power from an international counterpart is one that Kinguin still has to climb over. The same can be said for the resurgent compLexity Gaming. In the case of Team Empire, a fall from their current seat in the CIS region seems imminent given their consecutive qualifier losses for The Bucharest Major and ESL One Katowice. They had one opportunity to prove themselves in the form of this tournament, and it has slipped away. Finally, Infamous managed to not cross the lowest hurdle placed for them, winning a single game. With a large amount of extremely underwhelming results, one puts into question not just the team but the SA region itself.

A Monopoly Over The Outcomes

Mineski have been creeping around the periphery of the mainstream international cluster for a while now. After their win at the PGL Bucharest Open, Mushi and iceiceice’s pair were the pioneers for SEA Dota 2. While their domination in the region remained unparalleled, their outcomes at the international scene seemed to have but only peaked at the PGL Bucharest Open. With a good group stage performance, Mineski only but ran out of luck with their pairing against the champions at the tournament. Nevertheless, much is to be expected from the current roster, and more DPC points and better tournament finishes certainly lurk in their future.

LGD Gaming outperformed their expectations in game 1 against Newbee when they hit the first nail in the coffin of the most-awaited El Classico-esque finals. LGD Gaming won both their games against compLexity Gaming in the group stages, losing only to Team Liquid in a 2:0 back then. Against Newbee a 23 minute win followed by a grueling 53 minute game 2 saw the core duo Ame and Maybe outshine their Chinese counterparts Sccc and Moogy by a narrow margin but that was enough to catapult them into the finals. Back home, LGD Gaming secured 2 qualifier wins and missed out on The Bucharest Major by coming 2nd against VGJ.Thunder. Indeed, Maybe and co. have come a long way from securing numerous 2nd and 3rd positions in the quagmire that is China qualifiers. With this 2nd position, they rocket themselves up to 10th on the DPC leaderboard.

It is but a challenge to posit Newbee in any position. The roster that fell short at The International in a humiliating 3:0 against Team Liquid found ground and success with ease within the new competitive system. With 2 1st positions at DPC tournaments and taking 4th place in the DPC leaderboards alongside a much hyped rivalry that began to emerge against Team Liquid, expectations certainly were as high as it gets for a team. The Sccc train delivered in the group stages, winning against Team Empire and Mineski. Thereafter, it was with immense surprise that the 1st semi-final resulted in their loss. Somewhere, the confidence and accuracy of the team that beat Team Liquid in a nerve-racking 3:2 at ESL One Genting were in disarray against LGD Gaming. While there is without doubt a bright path ahead of them in many ways, this tournament certainly shall sting the roster.

Number One, Then and Now

Many pundits put into question the hegemony of Team Liquid over the scene. The first blow occurred at their loss in the finals of ROG DreamLeague Season 8 against a revived Team Secret. The second came with the finals of ESL One Genting 2018. Newbee, edging close to their much-awaited revenge over TI with every tournament finally succeeded there. After a very successful and momentous start to the DPC, the team began losing pace. A chance to regain their complete domination was lost in the above-mentioned two tournaments. However, Kuroky and co. were not to be fooled a third time. The group stages ended with a whitewash of matches in favor of them. The semi-finals saw a tense 2nd match, but Team Liquid pushed ahead.

Enter the finals. While the graphs favored the men in blue, the game certainly was inching towards the Dire as LGD made quick work during team-fights and in taking objectives. However, Miracle- stepped up to the competition. At the behest of some extraordinary Storm Spirit plays, the resurgence was firmly established and the game completely swayed back in their favor. He ended the game with a KDA of 23-4-12. Game 2 saw a complete turn of events, and Miracle-, again on the Storm Spirit, was utterly demolished in lane. The match ended with a quick high-ground push and ‘GG’ called soon afterwards due to LGD’s death ball.

At this point in the game, it is important to remember that Kuroky was one game away from a humongous milestone. With game 1, he had tallied his career wins to 999 games. When game 2 ended in the fashion that it did, many suspected a catapulting of the match in favor of LGD now that Team Liquid’s momentum was bitterly broken. A terrible analysis. Game 3 started with Team Liquid in the lead and never saw them give that up. LGD called ‘GG’ at the 26th minute, and history was made as the Dota 2 competitive universe witnessed its first ever 1000 professional game winner, Kuroky. The tally was soon to be 1001 however, as the final game too went to Team Liquid in similar fashion as ‘GG’ was called at the 28th minute and the team won their 3rd DPC tournament and 4th StarLadder competition in a row.